Now that 2025 draft picks have morphed into NFL rookies, it’s time to decide who is ready to be “instant impact” players — one of my favorite phrases to type this time of year on the NFL calendar. Because now every team is technically in “win-now” mode given how short patience has become in today’s NFL and society at large. It’s become increasingly difficult for franchises that look to be in “tank mode.”
Last year, Jayden Daniels was the driver in a tremendous organizational turnaround in the nation’s capital. Brock Bowers set a new rookie tight end receiving record. Brian Thomas Jr. went over 1,300 yards receiving in Jacksonville. And the only 1,000-yard rookie running back was fourth-rounder Bucky Irving of the Buccaneers. All instant impact.
In 2023, C.J. Stroud and Puka Nacua were immediate hits. So were Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam Laporta. Can’t forget about the diminutive but lightning-quick Tank Dell, either.
These are my top 10 instant-impact rookies from the 2025 rookie class.
Note: Back in 2021, I incorporated a rule to not include quarterbacks because of how outrageously obvious they would’ve been from that draft class. In 2023, I added a rule that only one selection from the top five was allowed.
All Jackson did at Ohio State was play 800-plus snaps in three consecutive seasons after entering the program as the No. 1 interior offensive line recruit in the country, per 247 Sports. Oh, and in 2024, he assumed full-time left tackle duties after Josh Simmons‘ serious knee injury, and the Buckeyes offseason didn’t skip a beat on the way to the national title.
Now, Jackson is a guard and only a guard in the NFL. And he’ll squeeze in next to Christian Darrisaw and Ryan Kelly on the left side of the Vikings’ strapping offensive line. This is about as pro-ready and athletic as a nearly 6-foot-4 and 320-pound guard comes out of the collegiate ranks. It’ll be much more challenging than others to notice, but Jackson will be incredibly instant impact in Minnesota.
Instead of either of the first-round tight ends who find themselves in crowded skill-position rooms in Indianapolis and Chicago respectively, I’m taking a big swing here with a safety who spent most of the pre-draft process injured and was a third-round selection.
When healthy, Winston was that good at Penn State roaming the deep middle and flying to the football on outside runs. One of my favorite stats for any prospect in the 2025 class: Winston did not miss a tackle on 506 snaps as a sophomore in 2023 while making 61 tackles, three of which were tackles for loss.
After tearing a knee ligament in September, Winston was able to sneak in a workout right before the draft, and ran 4.51 at over 6-1 and 213 pounds. He’s a supercharged mover on the field with ridiculously long arms that help not only knock away passes but defeat blockers blocking his path to the football. Tennessee was desperate for a true leader in the back seven of their defense, and I genuinely believe they selected that next player for them at No. 82 overall.
Gillotte is simply one of those defensive linemen that produces. He’s not a freakazoid athlete. He doesn’t have outstanding measurables. He just learned how to defeat blocks efficiently while getting upfield — or bending the corner — in college, and that nuance is rarely seen in trench prospects.
At Louisville, Gillotte pieced together back-to-back seasons with more than 55 quarterback pressures on 363 and 373 pass-rushing opportunities respectively. At a hair under 6-3 and 264 pounds with shorter arms, he demonstrates a unique bend of speed-to-power conversion, an occasional flash of bendiness, and he plays with the pedal to the floor on every snap. Kansas City needed a secondary outside rusher beyond George Karlaftis, especially given the lack of development for Felix Anudike-Uzomah. Gillotte won’t be earning Defensive Rookie of the Year consideration in his debut campaign. He’ll be a steady producer from the jump as a rotational piece who can hold up against the run and flash as pass rusher without much attention on him in 2025.
7. TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Patriots
Henderson is a plus pass protector and time and time again demonstrated explosive tendencies in space in college. Those are two ingredients to getting on the field early as a running back. Getting selected early in Round 2 is also quite helpful to September opportunities at any position.
The former No. 1 running back recruit in the 2021 class, per 247 Sports, demonstrated the talent that usually comes with such a lofty pre-collegiate ranking often at Ohio State, although he was never the undisputed No. 1 back. Ironically, the most carries he ever made in a season with the Buckeyes (183) came during his freshman season in 2021. He did score a gargantuan 42 touchdowns across four seasons and did run 4.43 with a 38.5-inch vertical at the combine. Henderson is one explosive cat. And enters a Patriots running back room with Rhamondre Stevenson, who probably has somewhat of a tenuous grasp on the No. 1 gig in the backfield.
6. RJ Harvey, RB, Broncos
Harvey is dynamite, ready to erupt at the light of a match. He’s built to play an in-space role in Sean Payton’s creative, screen-heavy offense, and I love that he also shouldered a traditional between-the-tackles workload at UCF.
He had 97 runs of 10-plus yards in his final two seasons for the Knights and plays with 4.40 speed and 38-inch vertical-type explosiveness. Javonte Williams is a now member of the Cowboys. Jaleel McLaughlin is a fun gadgety, screen-based runner. Such a great UDFA find for GM George Paton. He doesn’t possess Harvey’s surge on the football field. And Harvey is somewhat short, not small at 5-8 and a sturdy 208 pounds. This man will be the Broncos RB1 in short order as a rookie. Think Bucky Irving.
Hairston is instant impact for two main reasons: He’s an routine playmaker with spectacular suddenness, and Sean McDermott has a long history of extracting the most productivity possible out of his defensive backs. And Hairston is, quite easily, the most athletically gifted corner McDermott has ever coached in Buffalo.
The Bills now have a 4.28 speedster on the boundary who had six interceptions and 10 pass breakups in 20 games the past two seasons at Kentucky. And Buffalo had a seismic hole at CB2 opposite the newly minted Christian Benford in their secondary. Hairston is setup to have a tremendous first season in Western New York on a defense that finished second with 32 takeaways a season ago with lesser talent at corner.
4. James Pearce Jr., EDGE, Falcons
Nevermind the trade-up price here. The Falcons got a premier talent at a premium position at No. 25 overall. Just ask SEC offensive tackles. All Pearce did across two seasons at Tennessee was register a gargantuan, almost unheard of 21% pressure rate on 500-plus attempts to disrupt the quarterback.
He’s tall, reasonably bendy, with room to add weight to his frame, and he already converts speed to plenty of power. The pass-rush move arsenal is diverse enough to keep blockers honest. For a team that needed an infusion of supreme talent along its defensive line in the worst way, Pearce is exactly the type to hit the ground running on this Falcons team. And, yeah, it helps he’ll have a fellow rookie running mate in Jalon Walker and can learn from the similarly sized Leonard Floyd early in his career.
McMillan is a true “X” receiver in a league that has rapidly gotten increasingly label-less at the position. The Panthers have to “replace” 124 targets from their 2024 team, and, heck, all of them might go to McMillan as a rookie. While he’s not spectacular in any area, he has a large, 6-4, 215-pound frame capable of snagging passes that appear to be well outside his vicinity.
Learning route-running nuances from Adam Thielen won’t hurt, either. All McMillan did as the clear-cut No. 1 last season at Arizona after Jacob Cowing left for the NFL was catch 84 passes for 1,319 yards and eight touchdowns. He has the pro-ready game to be instant impact with what suddenly appeared to be an ascending Bryce Young late in 2024 campaign.
Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. formulate the most fun, athletically capable young receiver duo in football. The ball skills are otherworldly with these two receivers, and Hunter provides immense fluidity and smoothness to Thomas’ sheer electricity in a larger frame.
The intricacy Hunter played with at receiver in 2024 at Colorado was remarkable. He went from winning strictly because of an athletic advantage alone in his debut season in Boulder to snagging the football and generating huge plays with shoulder fakes, change of speeds and dynamic run-after-the-catch vision.
Jacksonville didn’t move mountains for Hunter to slowly ease him into Trevor Lawrence’s offense. With teams needing to first respect Thomas on the outside, Hunter can eat right away as a rookie.
Jeanty is the clearest instant-impact rookie in this draft class as a No. 6 overall selection at the running back spot following the finest season we’ve seen on the ground in college football since Barry Sanders in 1989. Jeanty has deceptive long speed, quality elusiveness and the best contact balance I’ve ever scouted at the position.
And he not only finds himself as the written-in Sharpie bell cow on a complete revamped Raiders offense, the Las Vegas blocking unit is an ascending group with 2024 second-round pick Jackson Powers-Johnson fresh off a rock-solid rookie campaign at center and right guard Dylan Parham entering the prime of what’s been a very encouraging NFL career to date. Kolton Miller remains one of the most capable athletes at left tackle, and the Raiders drafted two physical specimens in Caleb Rogers and Charles Grant in the middle of this draft.
Plus, Jeanty will tote the rock in Chip Kelly’s offense, and dating back to his time at Oregon, Kelly has a long history of accentuating backfield talent.
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